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Friday, February 06, 2015

Just Released!

by

Kirtimaya Varma

Who is winning the War on Terror? America and its allies? Islamists? America may be winning on the ground, but Islamists are winning the hearts of more and more Muslims all over the world. When one Islamist terror organization weakens, another strengthens to take its place in the War. Al Qaeda was forced to lie low after 9/11, but Taliban took over as the mainstream terror group, and with Taliban showing signs of retreat, Boko Haram and Islamic State are emerging as the top terror threats to the world still waiting for peace thirteen years after 9/11. An irony of the War on Terror is that more Muslims are being killed by Muslims in jihads than by non-Muslims.

Where is the War going? Obviously, not in the planned direction for both the sides. My novel Peace on Terror aims at making the two sides laugh at themselves. War has not provided any solution to the problem of terrorism. Will laughing together open up new avenues? I think, yes. This thinking led me to writing the novel.

There is an undercurrent of comedy in the tragedy of the War on Terror. The tragedy is well-known, because it is always talked about, reported in the media, and shown on the television. But the comedy is not. This comedy forms the theme of my novel. Providing a unique perspective on the War on Terror, my novel concludes by providing a quick solution wherein both the sides emerge victorious at the end of the War.

Sadiq is a Pakistani American. He has a love-hate relationship with America and gives himself up to hatred when America declares what he thinks is war on Islam.

He leads an Islamist group aiming to nuke America. As he is about to bomb Washington, he discovers how much America is in him.

His conversion from an Islamist to a true Muslim and nationalist American is the novel’s story, set mainly in the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

The story takes the War to a victory for both the sides, while Islamists discover secularism, democracy, and globalization are concepts as much rooted in Islam as in the West, and must be put into operation in the entire Muslim world.

Author Bio: Kirtimaya Varma graduated with a degree in electronics and telecom engineering from the University of Pune, Maharashtra, India in 1972. For sixteen years he was an electronics engineer working on jobs that involved the operation and maintenance of satellite earth stations. While in the engineering profession, during his leisure time, he was a freelance writer of short stories, articles, and poems. His writings have appeared in over 50 prestigious journals and newspapers all over the world.

In 1988, Kirtimaya left the engineering profession and became a full-time writer and technology journalist. He retired from technology journalism in July 2011 as editor-in-chief with Reed Elsevier Singapore Pte Ltd. He has worked in several countries, travelled extensively all over the world, and spoken in many international meets.

He lives in Haridwar, the sacred city on the foothills of the Himalayas and the banks of India's spiritual mother, river Ganga. His best hours in the day are those spent in meditation on the shores of the Ganga. He studies Vedanta and philosophy, is a practitioner of Rajyoga, and enjoys losing himself in the melody of devotional songs he plays on his musical instruments.

Based in India, he is also the author Silicon Self a science fiction novel also published by eTreasures Publishing, Florida. Peace on Terror, a satire on the War on Terror, is his third novel. Currently he is working on his fourth novel, For Heaven’s Sake, which is a satire on the lure for wealth and material prosperity of “holy” men and women who have renounced the world.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Just Released!

By

Joyce Reynolds-Ward

Seeking Shelter at the End of the World took a long time to develop. Its roots lie in two stories.
The first, “Canaries,” was based on a concept I developed in the 90s about
people with augmented allergies who served as living environmental warning
measures. I spent a couple of hours brainstorming the idea with K.W. Jeter’s
help, but could never get the story to coalesce until 2007.

The second story, “Pink Cats Dancing at the End of the
World,” had its roots in an Internet meme circulating about 2008 which featured
Hello Kitty AK-47s. I snatched Rianna and Jeff from “Canaries,” setting it several
days after “Canaries” ends. I blame Jay Lake in part for “Pink Cats,” because
by this time I participated in the Fireside Writers gathering every Tuesday
afternoon. Jay was working on near-future dystopias, and we spent some time
talking and thinking about them. “Pink Cats” came out of those discussions.

Fast forward a few years. Alma Alexander’s River anthology had been nominated for
an EPIC award. I had a story in the anthology, and went to the banquet with
Alma. Ellen Spain was interested in a fantasy novel I’d finished, but also
wanted something else. I didn’t have anything handy, and then I remembered
“Pink Cats.” I jammed “Pink Cats” and “Canaries” together and sent it off to
Ellen. She liked everything but the title—and as a result, here we are with Seeking Shelter at the End of the World.

With three months left before a predicted massive formation
of toxic Clouds that kill almost all life where they appear, Rianna and her
friend Jeff, both genetically engineered weather monitoring modelers known as
Canaries, go to Portland, Oregon to gather final data. They worry about the
recent disappearances of other Canaries on missions like theirs. This concern
proves to be justified when the gang known as the Aliens capture them.

As Jeff and Rianna escape the Aliens, they discover the
bodies of some of the missing Canaries, including Rianna's boyfriend, Bobby,
and learn that their boss wants them dead. In flight, Rianna finds Bobby's
brothers. Will she find a safe shelter with Mick and Francis of Morrison Street
Warren and, perhaps, more than that?

Seeking Shelter at the
End of the World is about love, safety, and the struggle to survive in the
face of overwhelming odds. Despite the dire end-time predictions Rianna has
helped model, deep inside she believes it is possible to survive even the
Clouds. She may be at the end of the world, but she believes shelter, and love,
is possible.

Author Bio: Joyce Reynolds-Ward
is a Portland, Oregon writer, skier, horsewoman, and former special education
teacher. She's had short stories and essays published in Zombiefied, River,How Beer
Saved the World, Fantasy Scroll Magazine,Trust and Treachery, and First
Contact Cafe. Her novella Seeking
Shelter at the End of the World will come out from eTreasures Publishing in
2015. Her novels Netwalk: Expanded
Edition, Netwalker Uprising, Life in
the Shadows: Diana and Will, and Alien
Savvy as well as other works are available through Amazon, Barnes and
Noble, Google Play, and other sources. Examples of Joyce's professional
education writing can be found at ChildsWork.com.

When not writing or working as an education consultant and
tutor, she's often thundering about on her intrepid reining mare Mocha, or
living la vida ski bum. Follow Joyce's adventures through her blog, Peak
Amygdala, at www.joycereynoldsward.com,
or through her LiveJournal at joycemocha. Joyce’s Amazon Central page is located
at http://www.amazon.com/Joyce-Reynolds-Ward/e/B00HIP821Y. Joyce can also be
found on LinkedIn and Facebook as Joyce Reynolds-Ward.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

eTreasures Publishing is proud to announce our very own Suzannah Safi is a finalist in the EPIC Ariana contest for best fantasy book cover.

Her cover was created for The Initiates by Kamil Ali. A successful Latvian lawyer named Karlis Stucka, meets Satan's First Dark Angel in human form, in a Riga ghetto. Karlis experiences a terror filled evening of unnatural events, as he is taken through the intense phases of training to become the Dark Angel's Lieutenant.

Karlis is chosen by Satan to become the highest ranking human, as a reward for becoming the youngest High Priest at age thirteen. Karlis and five of his teenaged friends conduct their first blood sacrifice, full moon ritual, which his Book Of Satan calls the gateway ritual. Karlis alone has the ability to read the book. His friends see only blank pages.

Karlis learns how to switch bodies, using the corpse of an albino African girl, who commits suicide by jumping over a waterfall. Karlis uses the body of the young lady, to become a gypsy queen, who leads a troop of recently resurrected dead actors and circus performers.

Karlis is groomed by Satan's First Dark Angel to practice mental and mystical feats. He receives constant reminders to discard logical thinking, which hampers his ability to perform his otherworldly activities.

Karlis is mandated to build an army of Devil Worshippers, in preparation for the second coming of Christ.

The First Dark Angel of Satan is worried about a Tibetan Monk, who was born at the same moment as Karlis. Both Karlis and the other baby have the three main ingredients that allows ascension above all other humans on the Dark Side.

The First Dark Angel loses communication with the other baby, when circumstances lead him to the halls of a Tibetan monastery. The monk has the power to overturn Satan's plan. However, as long as he remains within the walls of the monastery, he remains safe from Satan's reach.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Congratulations to John Joseph Doody

This book continues the story of The Wonk Decelerator and this time
Captain Maggie Thorn is the leading character. Maggie is a feisty lady
who rules her ship in a fair but strict manner. Charged with murder,
rescued and sent on a suicide mission to retrieve the scientist who
knows most about the Wonk Decelerator from a planet he is unable to
leave, her mission seems doomed to failure. Failure is not in Maggie’s
vocabulary and she has to return to see if the man she loves, Thad
Cochran, still lives.
I met Captain Maggie in the first book of this series and thought her
a hard hitting woman who didn’t allow her emotions to interfere with
her job. This time round I found her slightly weak at the beginning, but
growing in strength and determination as the story evolved.
When Benjamin Bale agrees to help the Captain it seems that failure
is almost a certainty, but Benjamin has hidden depths as does his alien
companion, Snot. Technology plays a big part in this universe, but only a
small part in the actual story. Maggie prefers martial arts instead of
hand weapons.
I liked the way the story switched from one planet to another, but
each scene was as long as necessary to involve me. I have to admit I
might have missed something here as I still have no idea what a Wonk is.
They inhabit a different space to the Earth universe, but where they
come from or what they do is still a mystery to me.
On the whole a good idea developed in an unusual way. It’s stronger
than the first book and leaves questions to be answered by any future
novels in the series.

And don't miss the first book in the Guild Saga

For Earthers dwelling in Guild space, it is a one-hundred year journey back to Earth. An unimaginable voyage, until now.

When
Guild commander and crack pilot, Thad Cochran boards the shuttle
destined for the casinos of Timmerus, finding a way back to Earth is not
on his radar. He wants the five-percent finder's fee the Guild is
offering for a black box held by the lizard-like Yazz. Thad has a dream:
With the loot he will get for stealing the Wonk Decelerator, he can buy
a ranch on Beta Prime.

But
things begin to fall apart for him in the dark caverns of Timmerus, and
Thad must reconsider his priorities in life. Has he discovered a cause
greater than his dream? Are there actually more important things to life
than money and his dream? What about the woman who is waiting for him?
What about freedom in the galaxy? And what about his discovery,
fashioned by the gnarled hands of a brilliant, old Yazz, that could
change everything?

Thad
Cochran has a choice to make. He can fulfill his quest, escape with his
life and be rich. Or he can fly with the Wonks ... one more time

And look for book three in the Guild Saga soon - The Return of the Crimson Witch